One more day!

Tomorrow is the big day of my boards. I do not plan to do any studying today, there is nothing like last minute cramming to stress you out. In fact I am focusing on something else more positive, and that is packing. For the beach. Which we are leaving for in about a day. And that is something I am looking much more forward to. Last minute details are being smoothed out, and our dear, sweet Christina is going to cat-sit for us, so we won't have to board them with the vet. And Hamza's fish Vader will be taken care of too.

Hamza went in for a quick orthodontic check and minor adjustment of his headgear today; all the serial extractions seem to be helping his permanent teeth to fall into place more aligned, so that's good news. I saw the dentist Monday and found out I need a couple of cavities filled. Ugh! The last time I had a filling was about 15 years ago. I And I get my teeth cleaned religiously every six months. So, WHY DO I HAVE CAVITIES?????!!!! Apparently I don't floss enough. So I'll start flossing more regularly too. Meanwhile I am getting ready to give our life savings away to the dentist. Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it will cost more than I'd like it too. I am soooooooo flossing several times a day from here on. Maybe it will save me in the long run!

Annual cardiology appointment

Today was Bilal's cardiology appointment. Such a blessing that it went so well. He was more anxious than he usually is, probably because he understood more in some ways, but didn't know what to expect in others. He reluctantly stood on the scales, but we did manage to get a weight. He was 30 pounds, so he hasn't gained any weight at all in the past 4 months, but that's OK; he had gained so rapidly in the few months before that, it was inevitably going to slow down. I think it coincides with stopping his Pediasure and switching him to low fat milk as everyone else at home drinks. I suppose we could switch him to whole milk for more calories if we needed to.

Bilal loving the trucks in the waiting area

Anyway, since he fussed some with his height and weight the nurse didn't attempt an EKG, but the cardiologist was OK with that. The most important thing is that he sat through the exam and echo with Dr. Colvin, without any protest at all. He managed to hear his heart and lungs and said everything sounded great. Bilal sat through the echo in my arms as usual, but Dr. C got a great view of everything, and told us that there were no significant changes since last year. Most of all, the right ventricle is not enlarged despite the leaky pulmonary valve. The size of the ventricle is one of the factors that determines when or if Bilal would need a valve replacement, so that was great news. He anticipates starting treadmill stress tests around the time Bilal is in Junior High, so nothing for a while. He did again suggest 18-24 month visits, and I again suggested 12 months (which Dr. C is fine with), but I might get brave and see if we can go 18 months between visits this time. Ask me next July!

With Dr. Colvin

I left the visit much more relaxed and reassured than this time last year. This had been one thing weighing on my mind a bit lately, even though deep down I believed that Bilal was doing fine. You can see how healthy and happy he is, my little wild man!

I posted this on Bilal's carepage too today.

Now one more thing to accomplish this week (my Boards), and then it's vacation time! As far as I know our beach house doesn't have internet access, so we'll be taking our mobile access with us. I don't know how much blogging I'll get done there, but I sure plan to do a lot of relaxing!! And it will be nice to read for pleasure instead of cramming; I'm picking out a selection of books to take with me.

Cardiology Appointment

Tomorrow is Bilal's much anticipated cardiology appointment with Dr. Colvin. Gotta get Bilal fed and clothed early so we can be out of the house by 7:30am, to give plenty of time for potentially getting lost on the road on the way to UAB, finding parking in the huge and almost un-navigable 6th Avenue parking deck, getting lost after walking out of the deck en route to the cardiology office, and still making it there before 8:30am. It doesn't matter that I've been there many times before, it's just a stressful trip. I just hope that Bilal does as well with the doc as he usually does. It's the EKG and chest x-ray that are the hardest on him, but after that he's usually great. I am hoping and praying for no surprises, and no significant changes since last year. I'll update after the appointment.

Fourth of July in Trussville

Today was the second annual Trussville Freedom Celebration, on the Mall, just a short walk away from our house. Why battle traffic downtown when you can walk less than a mile down the road, and enjoy a fireworks display lounging in your own chairs on a grassy field, among many other people you know? I was interested to see how Bilal would react to the fireworks this year; last year he was in his father's arms, with little hands covering both ears. But this year he actually enjoyed it, not once complaining about the noise, and actually relaxing in his stroller during the display. Before the show though, he was getting rather sleepy (remember, bedtime is 8pm or earlier, and the fireworks were at nine).

But he did perk up to give me one of his signature smiles, just for the camera:


Hamza roamed around, and had a chance to enjoy some of the free entertainment

And Safa found a friend of hers to hang out with. So she didn't even sit with us during the fireworks display.

It was a good evening, and on the walk back we appreciated even more the fact that we had walked to the Mall instead of driving. Considering there were cars parked up and down the streets of the neighborhood, almost up to our house!



I hope everyone had a great Independence Day!

Numerous countdowns

Bilal's cardiology appointment: T minus 6 days. We'll be seeing Dr. Colvin on July 7th for his annual appointment. I'm not really worried about the appointment, but there's always that little bit of hesitation......... The biggest accomplishment this time will be navigating UAB by myself again. I always wish that Zakir would come to these appointments with us, but for some reason we haven't been able to work it out that way for the last several appointments.

The other stressful (in a different way) deadline is for my recertification exam: 9 days left. I will be answering (or attempting to answer) 370 multiple choice questions on July 10th. Ugh! I just hope I pass!

And finally, the one we've all been looking forward to, the beach: We depart July 11th for one whole week of sea, sand and an extra long Mobeen fix! Farah will be vacationing with us too.

Hamza had his first orthodontic incident yesterday. Enticed by none other than his baby brother. Hamza was lying around, minding his own business when Bilal pushed down (rather forcefully) on his headgear. The safety mechanism didn't quite pop open, but one of the brackets cemented to his teeth popped out. So he had to go in today to get the bracket reinserted. Thankfully there's no additional charge for first offences.

And do you see the colorful T-shirt Bilal is wearing? My talented and creative toddler designed it all by himself, thanks to a handful of permanent markers and some rubbing alcohol. His older siblings were making their own, so of course he didn't want to be left behind. He picked out the colors, drew his own design and helped drip the alcohol on it. Then we let it air dry, ran it through the hot dryer and it was good to wear. Right now he's the only one of the three that wants to be seen wearing their t-shirt in public.

Hot Tuesday

Today was an attempt to make the most of my time with the kids. Didn't go too bad, but if it just weren't so darned hot! It peaked at almost 95 degrees. I took Safa for her guitar lesson at 8am this morning. Yeah, sounds kind of early, but I think her guitar teacher never sleeps. This was to make up for last week, and another lesson later this week. Bilal did fairly well; he spent most of the time playing with the dogs. Lela is so gentle, she can take any kind of abuse, but Bilal was actually pretty good with her.

Hamza was still asleep by the time we got back home. I'm inclined to let the kids sleep in these days, less time for them to complain about being bored, or just stare at the TV.

I took the kids to Barnes and Noble later in the morning, and we spent some time reading and browsing in the Children's dept. It is always nice to see the kids so involved in books. In fact, Bilal passed up on the train and toy table in favor of reading books.

Safa reading to Bilal, while he is too busy looking at a different book

Hamza focused on a Pokemon graphic novel

Later we met our friend Eima at the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. The portion sizes are HUGE at that restaurant! Between the four of us we probably had enough food for eight, and I didn't even order a meal for Bilal! As a result we are stocked up with more containers in the fridge. Of course you can't go to the Cheesecake Factory and not order cheesecake, so we each bought a slice to go too. My choice? White chocolate caramel macadamia nut cheesecake. Quite a mouthful to say, and to eat!

New bed

Checking out Bilal's new bed yesterday evening:

Quite comfy

Good to jump on

Cool to climb off

As Baba told him, it's a 'working man's bed'. The rails on the side act as a ladder, so he didn't even want a stool to climb on and off it.

Great to lie on and just chill

It is really perfect to sit and read books on too

We were going to go out and buy new bedding, but I found Hamza's old comforter from when he used to have this bed. The transportation theme goes perfectly with the wallpaper border I put up when Bilal moved into his own room upstairs (almost as if they were purchased together!). He's happy with it for now, so we're going to stick with it.


He had a great night yesterday; the transition from the crib couldn't have been smoother. I, personally, was rather teary-eyed. I don't think I'm really ready for so many changes yet! It didn't go so well at nap time today, though. He just didn't want to lie in bed for any period of time. So no nap today either! As a result he was rather irritable and labile as we got into the afternoon and evening. Also exceptionally naughty. Since he stayed on the edge of a meltdown I gave him an early bath, which initially he resisted, but he settled down some after that. So I tucked him in just after 7pm this evening, almost a hour earlier than usual. I know he's going to give up naps eventually, but he still seems to need them, so we'll keep trying.

I've got just under 2 weeks until my boards, and there's only so much I can study with little needy Bilal up and running around, so it's back to the books for me!